


A Promise of Love

by leveloneandup



Series: Milestones [2]
Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-17 07:40:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29468118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leveloneandup/pseuds/leveloneandup
Summary: After an exhausting day, Tobin and Christen spend a nice, quiet Valentine's Day together.
Relationships: Tobin Heath/Christen Press
Series: Milestones [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2164467
Comments: 24
Kudos: 127





	A Promise of Love

It’s been a long and physical day in the ER so far and it’s only 11AM. Christen’s been on shift since 8 in the morning and already, she’s had to hold down a crying 3-year-old with an ear infection who subsequently kicked her in the ribs when she finally stuck her otoscope in his ear, help tackle a patient who was just getting to the good part of his high of whatever drug he was on and wrangle him back to his bed, and now she’s taking over compressions for Dr. Dunn. 

After about five minutes, the dull tone stops and they hear a beep. Then another. Everyone stills and looks up at the monitor as it steadies. And just as quick as everyone stopped, everyone is in motion again. 

“Alright people, let’s move him before he goes back down! Did they say which OR?” The nurses are unhooking IV bags and laying them down on the patient and detaching monitors to attach them to the side of the bed. The rails of the bed come up and the wheels are moving as Dr. Dunn is at the head of bed, ready to push the patient up to surgery. 

“OR 3 is waiting for you, Dr. Dunn. Dr. Buehler is scrubbing as we speak,” Rose responds as she hangs up the phone. 

“Alright, let’s move.” Dr. Dunn and Tierna start to push the patient out of the room. “Davidson, didn’t you say you wanted to catch some time in the OR?”

Tierna looks back at Crystal, an excited smile already breaking through, “Wait, really?” 

Crystal winks at her, “I’m sure Buehler could use an extra set of eyes and hands in there. Let’s see what she says.”

Tierna turns back around and whispers to herself, “Yes!” as Crystal just shakes her head, remembering her days as an intern and wanting to see and experience everything. 

Back in the bedless room, Christen just sighs as she takes off her gloves and rolls her neck from left to right, “What a morning, huh?”

Rose takes her own gloves off, “I know.” She gives her a fake and knowing smile, “And it’s only just begun.”

Christen laughs as she pushes open the door, “Oh I know. Valentine’s Day in the ER is always interesting, no matter where you are.” 

As she starts to walk out behind Rose, she hears the laugh that she’s gotten used to in the last month and a half. 

She looks towards the nurses’ station and isn’t surprised to see Tobin and Lindsey joking around. She’s so focused on Tobin that she doesn’t even notice Tobin handing Rose a bag as she breezes by her to get behind the counter. 

Tobin’s eyes are towards Rose, but Christen hopes the wider smile is for her.

Tobin looks past Rose as she hands her the bag, “Well good morning, Dr. Press.”

Christen quickly averts her eyes to Lindsey as she takes a chart from her with a nod, “Good morning, Tobin.” 

With her eyes still on Christen, Tobin slides something across the counter, “Happy Valentine’s Day, Dr. Press.”

Christen looks down at the bag that Tobin has slid over. Her eyes start to widen as she realizes that it’s a heart shaped cookie and quickly glances between Tobin, who is smirking and gives her a wink, and the cookie again. 

They had already talked about keeping things professional at work and so far, they’ve been able to keep it a secret. Sure, Tobin has gotten a little bolder in her approaches, but nothing to cause suspicion and Christen secretly loves it. 

The nurses and doctors all still make fun of Tobin from time to time, telling her that there is no way that Dr. Press is one to fall for Tobin’s lame attempts, much like right now. As Christen opens her mouth to say something, Lindsey is trying to stifle her laugh as she watches to see how Christen responds. 

They’ve talked about spending today together but it was so casual that Christen wasn’t sure that Tobin even knew it was Valentine’s day rather than just a random Sunday. Christen didn’t care though, she just wanted to spend the night with Tobin, no matter what day it was. She had Tobin’s gift and card already in her purse for later when she stopped by Tobin’s and was more than happy to brush it off if Tobin didn’t know what day it was or even cared for the day. 

But Tobin clearly knows it’s Valentine’s Day and she had given her a cookie. A heart-shaped cookie. In the middle of the ER. And is now looking at her, waiting for her response. 

Christen doesn’t even know why she opens her mouth because she has no idea what she wants to say, or could even say.

It’s a good thing that this is also Rose’s first Valentine’s Day with Tobin around because she excitedly interrupts the interaction, much to Lindsey’s disappointment, with a gasp as she finally looks at the bag that Tobin handed her, “These are so cute, Tobin! What does yours say, Dr. Press?”

Christen looks over at Rose, who’s tiptoeing to try and peer across the counter, and glances down to the identical bag-in-cookie in Rose’s hand, and if Tobin notices that Christen’s face falls just the slightest with disappointment, she doesn’t bring it up.

Christen shakes her head and snaps out of it, finally looking at the cookie Tobin gave her a little closer, “Oh. Uh... “ She reads over the words in her head before reading them out loud, “You must be aphasia, because you left me speechless.”

Rose laughs, “Mine says, ‘Can I take your temperature, because you’re looking hot today.’” 

Rose goes on to try to look at all the other nurses’ cookies and Christen finally looks around and sees that almost everyone is holding or eating a cookie that Tobin has apparently handed out. 

Christen’s head snaps back to Tobin as Tobin speaks up, “What do you think?” Tobin nods at the cookie and waits for Christen to respond. Some of the nurses around them turn to look as well, awaiting for Dr. Press to wave Tobin off like she always does.

Christen looks at Rose and Lindsey who are both taking small bites of their cookie and winks at them, before turning back to Tobin and shrugs, “I guess it’s true. Sometimes you just make me not want to talk at all.”

She slides the cookie back to Tobin, “Thanks, but I’m watching my sugar.” She clicks her pen and puts it back in her pocket as she gathers her chart and walks off to the curtained area to see her next patient.

Behind her, she hears the nurses laughing and joking.

“Oooooh, nice one, Dr. Press.”

“Daaaamn, she got you, Tobin.”

“Tsk tsk tsk. Not even on Valentine’s Day huh? Tough luck, Tobin.”

And Tobin is always a good sport about it. She hears her chuckle, “Alright alright, it wasn’t that bad.”

Dr. Dunn is beside her now, “Tobin, Tobin, Tobin. I don’t even know what happened but from this noise, I’m sure it was bad.”

Tobin just rolls her eyes as she puts on her gloves, “Don’t you have lives to save, Dunny?”

Crystal laughs and waves her off as she walks away. “Yeah, yeah. Go bring me some.”

Tobin feels a hand on her back, “Alright player, let’s roll out. And maybe you should stop spending money on cookies and trying to woo the nurses and actually buy a pair of matching gloves.”

Tobin looks down and flexes her gloved hands, one bright red and one dark purple, “What’s wrong with them? They work, don’t they?”

Dansby shakes his head as he eyes the gloves, “Well one, you look like a child. Two, they’re practically falling apart.” He pulls at one of the frayed ends of the fingertips. 

“And three.” He snatches the cookie bag that is poking out of Mal’s pocket as she walks by, causing her to glare at him, before continuing to the exam room without even stopping, arm full of supplies. “My girlfriend has her own Valentine’s cookies to enjoy.”

They start to walk out as Tobin laughs and he continues, “And seriously? ‘You give me tachycardia’? Is that supposed to be cute? Or a warning for the cookie?” before taking a big bite of the cookie.

Tobin pushes him towards the passenger door of the ambulance, “Shut up, Swanson, those weren’t even for you.”

Inside the hospital, Christen disposes her gloves before she returns a chart at the counter, grabbing a new one from the rack.

She flips the page up to read the chart when Crystal slides next to her, reaching over her for a chart of her own, “So, I heard you really gave it to her today. Over a cookie. Ruthless, Press.”

Christen just laughs as she continues to read the chart and shrugs, “I mean, she gave me a nice set up, so...”

Crystal just hums, “Mhm. And when are you ever gonna put that girl out of her misery.”

Christen looks up, “What are you talking about?”

Crystal closes her chart and looks at Christen, “I mean, the girl is relentless. And I gotta say, her lines aren’t half bad, and they’re only getting better. I swear, this year, she actually tried on these cookies. Usually she just buys the generic candy-hearts-message ones. I feel like one of these days, you’re just gonna give in. I’d bet money on it.”

Christen shakes her head and chuckles, closing her own chart, “We work together.”

Crystal just raises her eyebrow and questions, “So? So does half the hospital.” before turning around and walking away.

Lindsey steps out from a curtained area and sees Christen. She walks closer to her and tries to keep her smirk in check, “Dr. Press? You got a minute?”

Christen looks to Lindsey and raises her brow, “Uh oh. What do we got?”

“Let’s just say, we’ve,” Lindsey moves her hand in a circular motion to find the right words, “misplaced a candle.”

Lindsey leads Christen back to the curtained area to reveal a man, trying to comfortably sit down on the bed while his wife sits in the corner with her face in her hands, clearly embarrassed. 

Christen surveys the scene before carefully asking, “Good morning, I’m Dr. Press.” She walks over to the man and tries to help him lay down on his side since sitting didn’t seem to be an option, “Why don’t we start with what happened?”

* * *

_The cookies were cute. Bit hit with the nurses._

Tobin laughs as she takes a bite of her burrito. _What about the doctors?_

_Could use some work._

Tobin shakes her head. _Still coming over tonight?_

_That’s the plan. Which has nothing to do with the cookies btw before you say anything._

_Come on. That totally would have worked if no one else was around._

The radio comes alive in the ambulance as it reports an accident on the freeway further out in another region, requesting back up from their unit. Dansby jumps up from the back and into the passenger seat, answering the call, “This is Unit 309 responding. Enroute now. ETA 20 minutes. Over.”

Tobin wraps up her burrito and turns the key in the ignition. She sees a flash on her phone. Christen sent her a google search image of an IV bag with the words, ‘ _You get my heart racing like an epinephrine drip.’_

Tobin smiles to herself while she locks her phone and puts it away.

“Alright, Dans. Did they say how bad it is?”

* * *

Christen doesn’t see Tobin for the rest of her shift. When Alyssa and her partner come in with a patient, Mal asks about Dansby and Tobin and they tell her that they’re still helping out with the accident on site and transferring patients to General instead of County and that it’s still pretty busy out there.

When Christen gets a chance, she turns her phone, she sees that Tobin never replied to her text. Knowing that Tobin is busy, she just sends a text telling Tobin to let her know if she’s too tired tonight, they can just reschedule. 

Towards the end of her shift, Tobin texts her back, _Of course not. See you soon!_

* * *

Tobin is exhausted when she finally makes it home, but she powers through. After a quick shower, she sets up the bathroom and then heads out to the kitchen to start cooking. 

An hour later, she hears a knock on the door just as she puts the last of the roasted potatoes next to the salmon on the plates. She picks up the plates, sets them on the table, and recenters the small vase of half a dozen red roses before she finally turns towards the door. 

She opens the door to find Christen standing there in her long, grey overcoat, neck adorned with a mustard yellow scarf, and her hands in her pocket. Tobin quickly lets her in and takes her coat and scarf for her. She takes off her boots as Tobin wonders how she can look so good in something as simple as dark jeans and a form fitting white long sleeve top. 

When Christen stands back up, she admires Tobin’s outfit as well. “I would have considered wearing a dress if I knew we were bringing out the big guns today.”

Tobin closes the distance between them, putting her hands on Christen’s waist as her arms swing up to rest on Tobin’s shoulders, “What are you talking about? You look great.”

Christen lets Tobin give her a quick kiss before she explains, “But you actually like, dressed up.” Christen looks up and down to emphasize Tobin’s dark blue button-up shirt, where the three top buttons were not done and she was definitely not going to complain about that, and light grey slacks. Usually, when they spent nights together, Tobin was either still half in her work outfit or in sweats and a t-shirt by the time Christen made it over.

Tobin just shrugs, “Just thought I’d put something nice on for tonight.”

Tobin kisses her again and she pouts, “I kinda feel underdressed now.”

Tobin chuckles, “I think,” Tobin kisses her pout, “You look perfect, babe.” Tobin wiggles her eyebrows up and down, “Maybe a little overdressed, but never underdressed.”

That brings a smile to Christen’s face and Tobin just takes her hand and guides them further into the apartment.

When Christen sees the dinner set-up, with roses and candles lit, she can’t help but turn back to Tobin with a loving smile, “Tobin, did you cook?”

Tobin guides her to her seat, pulling out the chair for her, “It’s just salmon, asparagus and potatoes. Nothing too complicated.”

Tobin sits down next to Christen on the other side of the corner and Christen reaches out to hold her hand on top of the table. “Still, thank you. This looks amazing, babe.” 

Christen face turns a little worried, “I know you had a long day though. You must be exhausted.”

Tobin just raises their hands up and kisses Christen’s knuckles and simply dismisses her concerns, “Happy Valentine’s Day, babe.”

They take their time at dinner, telling each other about their days since they didn’t get to see each other as much as they normally would.

Tobin’s day consisted of going back and forth between the accident site and the hospital and really, just helping out wherever she could. There were a lot of casualties but only a couple in critical conditions, although last Tobin had heard, they were stable. 

Christens day was full of random extractions of foreign objects from people who got a little too enthusiastic about celebrating Valentine’s Day. She predicts that Dr. Lloyd will probably have a lot more fun tonight on the graveyard shift. 

As they are finishing up their store-bought chocolate mousse, they exchange gifts.

“I got you something.” Tobin picks up their plates and walks them to the sink.

Christen retrieves something from her purse and comes back just as Tobin sits down again, “Me too.”

Tobin slides the gift across the table, “It’s not much…”

Christen looks down and sees a familiar looking cookie before looking back up at Tobin, “You already gave me one of these.”

Tobin nods towards the cookie, “This one’s different. And also, you gave that one back. With some sass, I might add.”

Christen looks down and is ready to see a cheesy pick-up line written on the heart-shaped cookie, but is surprised when she just sees a simple, ‘ _Be mine?’_

Christen looks back up at Tobin and says jokingly, “I think the ones from this morning were a little more elaborate.”

Tobin laughs softly as she begins hesitantly, making Christen a little nervous, “Yeah, but this one means more.” Christen just waits as Tobin rubs her hands on her thighs and continues, “I mean, like, I know we’ve never really talked about it and I wasn’t sure if you want to talk about it. Or not.” 

Tobin runs a hand through her hair and sighs, “I guess, I’m wondering if you’d be my girlfriend.”

She says it as a statement so Christen tries to clear it up. With an amused look on her face, she asks Tobin, “Tobin. Are you asking if I want to be your girlfriend right now?”

Tobin thinks Christen is about to laugh in her face so she quickly tries to backtrack, “I mean, we don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. We can just keep doing whatever we’re doing is fine. It’s not a big deal. I was just—”

Christen leans forward and grabs Tobin’s hands, “Whoa, okay. Let’s take a step back.”

Tobin stops rambling and looks Christen in the eyes, “It’s not that I don’t want to, it’s just…”

Tobin’s shoulders drop a little in resignation, “It’s not the right time.”

Christen shakes her head, “No, it’s not that. I just. I thought we were already there.”

Tobin furrows her eyebrows, “Already where?”

Christen just laughs, “Girlfriends. I thought we were already girlfriends.”

Tobin’s face relaxes as she comes to a realization. Before Christen can fully appreciate Tobin’s cute expression, there’s a finger pointed at her face with an aggressive, “I knew it!” from Tobin as if she was proving a point, quite aggressively.

Christen backs up a little in surprise as Tobin suddenly jumps up and paces around, hands gesturing in the air, “Ahhh. I knew it!”

Christen follows Tobin with her eyes, confused, “You did? You just said…”

But Tobin isn’t listening as she finally stops pacing and puts her hands on the back of her chair, shaking her bowed head. She continues on a little more softly, apparently arguing with herself, or convincing herself of something, Christen really isn’t sure at this point. “I knew we were girlfriends. And Jrue.” She looks up at Christen now and speaks in her normal tone, “Jrue!”

Christen is as confused as ever, “Jrue?”

Tobin laughs, “Jrue said I needed to ask.” Tobin deepens her voice to imitate Jrue, Christen thinks, “ _‘It’s not really official until you ask her properly, Tobes.’_ ” Christen just nods along now and decides to wait for Tobin to finish with her monologue before she tries to fill in the details that she is clearly missing. “But it didn’t matter, right? We’re already girlfriends.”

Tobin looks at Christen now, a little softer, her focus fully back on Christen again. She sits down and grabs one of Christen’s hands with both of hers as she looks into her eyes, “I mean, that’s how I’ve been feeling about us. It never felt like we were just messing around or anything. It just felt like,” Tobin shrugs, “You were my girlfriend. Right?”

Christen smiles at Tobin and nods, “Yeah. I felt the same way. I didn’t think that anyone needed to ask. I just figured you were my girlfriend this whole time.”

Tobin smiles wide at that, “So that’s a yes to the cookie then?”

Christen laughs softly as she leans in for a kiss, “Yes. I was already yours, so still, yes.”

Tobin laughs and leans her forehead against Christen’s before she goofily asks, “So you’re saying you’ve been mine since got my hands on you?” She wiggles her eyebrows so both their heads move. 

Christen chuckles and leans back to look at Tobin, “We were having a moment.”

“What? I was still in the moment. Just trying to get some specifics on our anniversary here.”

Christen shakes her head, before she remembers something, “Oh! Speaking of hands. Your gift.”

Christen leans to the other side of her chair and picks up the red gift bag and hands it to Tobin. 

“The wrapping is already better than mine.” Tobin looks inside. 

“It’s not a competition, babe.”

Tobin pulls out the items in one grab, “Oooh. Fuzzy.” She pulls out her hand to reveal two pairs of gloves, a purple pair and a red pair, and a card, “And a card. Okay, fancy pants.”

Christen rolls her eyes and leans back in her seat, “Shut up.”

Tobin bites her lip as she opens the card, which has a drawing of two women walking into the sunset holding hands on the front, and reads out loud, _“If you’re going to hold my heart one day, I’m going to need you to have warm hands.”_

She looks up at Christen who’s looking at her expectantly, hoping Tobin understands what she was trying to say. It was definitely too early to say ‘I love you’ but ‘like’ didn’t seem to express enough. Christen knows where they were headed, they just weren’t there yet. 

Tobin doesn’t look upset or offended but the silence makes her nervous, “You know, I’m not really too good with the note stuff. I should have just signed the card.”

Tobin leans forward and puts a hand on Christen’s thigh and just shakes her head, “This is perfect.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. It’s the right amount of cheesy, and Valentine Day’s-y, and,” Tobin leans forward to place a soft kiss on Christen’s lips, “Us. Definitely us.”

Tobin felt the same way. They had some time before they exchanged ‘I love you’s’ and for right now, this promise was right where they were at. Christen had put it into words, perfectly. 

“I got you gloves, because yours are getting really ratty, babe.”

Tobin laughs and picks up the gloves, “Hey, I like my old, trusty gloves.”

“I know, but they’re starting to get holes in them and I don’t want you to get cold.”

Christen takes the gloves from Tobin and opens the packaging to separate the gloves, “I tried to find the same colors as yours, but this was the closest I could find.” Once she switched a glove from each pair into the other, she held up one of the now-mismatched pair of gloves. “I got you both so you can still wear two different ones, how you like.”

Tobin grabs the pair of gloves on Christen’s lap and runs her fingers along the material. They were definitely nicer than her old gloves, “This was very thoughtful, thank you.”

Christen smiles, happy that Tobin likes her gift.

Tobin looks down at the pair of gloves in her hands and lets out a laugh. And Christen could watch Tobin laugh forever but she interrupts her, “What?”

Tobin looks up and grabs the other pair of gloves that Christen is still holding in the air and puts them both side-by-side, “You know, I wear different gloves because I lost the other ones, right?”

Christen laughs too. “I figured. But you make them work so.” She shrugs. “Plus, now you can decide if you want to match or not.”

* * *

Once they’ve finished the dishes, they stand in the kitchen for a while, just embracing each other and finally winding down. This is when they both realize how exhausted they are, although they don’t say anything to the other. 

As they start to sway, Tobin whispers in her ear, “I have something else for you.”

Christen nuzzles against the space between shoulder and neck, “More? Baby, you’ve done enough today.”

Tobin rubs her hand up and down Christen’s back, “You didn’t think the only thing I got you was a cookie, did you?”

Christen leans back to look at Tobin, “You made dinner and everything. Even if it _was_ just the cookie, I liked my cookie. From my _girlfriend_.”

Tobin brings a hand up to cup Christen’s cheek and whispers, “One more.”

Christen hesitates a little. She knows what usually happens on Valentine’s Day and to be completely honest, she didn’t think she could stay awake during sex right now. But she doesn’t know how to tell Tobin without letting her down. 

Before she could form a sentence, Tobin pulls out of their embrace and loosely takes her hand and pulls her towards the bathroom. She takes in the scene and just sighs happily. 

All around the tub are candles waiting to be lit and a bottle of her favorite bubble bath scents. And Christen doesn’t have the heart to say no to a bath. 

Once they’ve settled, with Christen leaning back against Tobin, they fall into a comfortable silence, enjoying the relaxing bath. 

After about 20 minutes, Christen opens her eyes after feeling Tobin lazily trace her fingers up and down her arms. She’s not sure if she fell asleep or not, but it was probably time to get out. 

Christen adjusts slightly, “Babe?”

Tobin just hums in response. 

Christen keeps her voice low, as if she didn’t want to startle the girl behind her, “I know it’s Valentine’s Day and everything.” Tobin hums again. “But if I’m being honest, I’m actually really tired tonight.”

Tobin hums again, and Christen doesn’t know what to make of it until she hears Tobin finally form mumbled words into her hair, “Thank god. I’m exhausted. It’s been a long day.”

They both go silent again for a minute before pulling back Christen’s hair to place a kiss on the side of her neck, “Will you stay over, anyway?”

Christen smiles. This was a first. They’ve only ever stayed over at each other places after having sex. But this was another step to where they knew they were headed. 

Christen turns her head to kiss Tobin, “I’d like that.”

They just hold a lingering kiss to really take in the moment and the whole night. The night filled with promises of tomorrows and ‘I love you’s’ and whatever else, as long as they were together. 

Tobin places a kiss to Christen’s temple as Christen asks a question, “What would you have done if I wanted sex, tonight.”

Tobin just lets out a laugh, “I have a Red Bull in the fridge that I was going to chug.”

Christen laughs, “Ew. Those are so bad for you.”

* * *

Once they’ve settled in bed, Christen curls into Tobin’s side and Tobin’s hand runs up and down Christen’s back.

Christen remembers what she wanted to ask before, “I have another question.”

Tobin just hums in response, almost half asleep.

“Who’s Jrue?”

Tobin breathes out a laugh, eyes still closed. “He’s Lauren’s guy.”

Christen’s first memory at the rec center a couple of weeks ago with Tobin comes back to her. Jrue briefly introduced himself when he was dropping Lauren off, having to run. 

“Didn't he and Lauren get together when they were in college?”

“Mhm.”

Christen recognizes that Tobin is basically asleep right now, even though she’s trying to respond for Christen’s sake.

She places a kiss on Tobin’s chest, “Good night, baby.”

That night she falls asleep with a smile bigger than any she’s ever had when they’ve had sex.

For now. 

**Author's Note:**

> This started as a Christmas one-shot but I can't stop thinking about this universe so... I guess it's turned into a sort of holiday/milestone series for now.
> 
> *Continuity note: So I kind of dropped the ball a little here and forgot that there is a flashback scene in my previous post where Christen casually calls T her girlfriend before this day. But let's just collectively pretend that they forgot...? Rookie mistake to watch out for in the future. Apparently, I'm a sucker for, "I thought we were already together/official?" scenes. 
> 
> Thoughts on asking to be someone's girl/boy/they-friend? I think it's cute to be asked but I'm also okay with not being asked, if that makes sense. I'm also at a point in my life where if we've both gone out of our ways to spend time together and put in the effort, it can go unspoken.


End file.
